Water

Everything built to move, hold or cross water, and the water itself. Noongar wetlands and the Derbarl Yerrigan, soaks and gnamma holes, Mundaring Weir and the pipeline that runs five hundred and thirty kilometres to the goldfields, station tanks and windmills, the Ord scheme and Lake Argyle, and the salt scalds left by clearing the wheatbelt.

Part of Western Australia

109 moments in this segment.

1930 - Ms428 + train, Mundaring Weir, 1930s. A WAGR Ms class Garratt locomotive, no. 428, with a passenger train at Mundaring Weir.The information provided here about the date of the image is obtained from Gunzburg, Adrian. A History of WAGR Steam Locomotives.
1939 - Canning Dam, construction of dam wall, 1939. The scarp is the western edge of the Yilgarn Craton, so the dams sit on some of the oldest continental crust on Earth. The Darling Scarp dams supply Perth from jarrah forest catchments east of the city.
1966 - River Ord Irrigation Scheme (1966). British Pathe newsreel of the Ord River irrigation works in the east Kimberley. The scheme diverted river water to irrigate farmland around Kununurra. The footage shows the earthworks and channels under construction.
1984 - South-West view across Serpentine Dam. Original image captured using a Canon Sure Shot 35mm film cartridge compact camera by user "aussiejeff" on flikr.com. The scarp is the western edge of the Yilgarn Craton, so the dams sit on some of the oldest continental crust on Earth.
2001 - Soil salinity in Australia (2001). A CSIRO film on soil salinity in Australia, first released in 2001. Dryland salinity follows the clearing of deep-rooted native vegetation, after which rainfall seeps past the root zone, water tables rise and capillary action brings ancient stored salt to the surface. Clearing as little as 25 percent of a catchment can trigger it.
2006 - Serpentine dam wa. Serpentine Dam, on the scarp south east of Perth. Serpentine Dam offtake tower and partial dam wall, at 27% of capacity.
2007 - .00 0982 Ord River - Australia. Ord River, a river in the Kimberley region of northeastern Western Australia. In 1971, the river was dammed by a 100 meter high dam to create Lake Argyle, Australia's largest reservoir.
2007 - 00 2098 Western Australia - Lake Argyle. The Lake Argyle in the extreme north-east of Western Australia was created by impoundment of the River Ord River. The reservoir is the largest freshwater reservoir in Australia with a water surface of 750 to 1000 square kilometers.
2007 - Mundaring weir zigzag under water. Spur line at w:Mundaring Weir, Western Australia. This section of line has been under water since the Weir was extended in 1952, normally between 3-8 meters below.
2007 - Pipe joint gfwss. Plaque showing the rivetless joint created by Mephan Ferguson c1890's. The plaque is near the Mundaring Weir where Ferguson supplied 530 kms of pipeline using this joint, the first major pipe project to use a rivetless joint.
2008 - Lake clifton. Salt crust near the shore of Lake Clifton. Clearing deep-rooted native vegetation lets rainfall seep past the root zone, raising water tables so that capillary action brings ancient stored salt to the surface. Clearing as little as 25 percent of a catchment can trigger it, and the salt that surfaces was stored in the soil profile long before the ploughs arrived.
2008 - Mundaring Weir Road at the weir from the south. W:Mundaring Weir Road west of Mundaring Weir, running down the north side of the Helena river valley slope. Mundaring Weir is the head of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, which lifts water 530 kilometres to Kalgoorlie through eight pumping stations.
2008 - Canning Dam, Perth (3). The water level at Canning Dam in Perth, Western Australia when the dam was down to 34.4% of its total capacity. Perth now draws on desalination and groundwater as well, because the surface catchments no longer fill the way they did.
2008 - Sleeping Buddha view. From the top of the Sleeping Buddha. A view of the north peak of Sleeping Buddha showing the Ord River, Kununurra.
2010 - Macropus Fuliginosus feeding. Western Grey kangaroo feeding young, Darling range, Western Australia. Before the pipeline reached the goldfields in 1903, Kalgoorlie ran on condensed salt water and carted water, and typhoid moved through the camps.
2010 - Macropus fuliginosus Closeup. W:Macropus fuliginosus close up - Darling range, Western Australia. C.Y. O'Connor shot himself at Robb Jetty on 10 March 1902, and John Forrest commissioned the completed scheme the following year.
2010 - Group of Macropus fuliginosus Darling Range 05010. Macropus fuliginosus (Western Grey Kangaroo) feeding, Darling Range, western Australia. The 1968 Meckering earthquake damaged this pipeline, which links the water scheme to the fault scarp in one event.
2011-04-04 - WA dams beginning to run dry. ABC News from 2011 on Western Australian dams falling to low levels. Perth's surface storages have supplied a declining share of the city's water as rainfall over the catchments dropped. The report shows the drawdown at the dam walls.
2011 - O'Conner grave. The causal link between the press campaign and his death is often asserted and has not been established. Charles Yelverton O'Connor arrived in the colony in April 1891 as Engineer-in-Chief and built both Fremantle Harbour and the Goldfields pipeline.
2012 - Clackline Brook Bridge from west. The bridge was a road bridge adjacent to the railway bridge that went over the Brook as well. The new alignment of the Great Eastern Highway runs over the brook to the left rear of the photograph view.
2012 - Congelin Water Tank Tower and Ash Pit. Remains of the water tank tower and ash pit at the Congelin Siding of the Hotham Valley Branch on the Pinjarra to Narrogin line. Windmills lifting bore water into tanks made pastoral occupation of the arid interior possible, and the same water points had often been Aboriginal soaks first.
2012 - Mundaring Weir looking from north ledge. Mundaring weir (Lake C Y O'Connor) upper reaches (looking approximately south east from North Ledge). Water rises about 390 metres between the weir and the goldfields, which is why the pumping stations exist at all.
2013-02-10 - Aboriginal water values and management in northern Australia. CSIRO research on Aboriginal water values and management in northern Australia. Water rights in the north remain largely unallocated to traditional owners despite native title determinations over the surrounding Country. The distinction between land rights and water rights is the live question.
2013 - Lake argyle. Ancient hills around the lake. The reservoir is among the largest in Australia by volume.
2013 - Lake argyle local. Cant remember if they are Euro's or not. The Durack family overlanded cattle to the Ord in 1883, one of the great pastoral drives and the beginning of European occupation here.
2013 - O Connor bch. O'Connor Beach, with the SS Wyola hull. Charles Yelverton O'Connor arrived in the colony in, April 1891 as Engineer-in-Chief and built both Fremantle Harbour and the Goldfields pipeline.
2013-10-29 - Constructing Australia (2007) Pipe Dreams. A feature documentary on the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, the 530 km pipeline that carries water from Mundaring Weir to Kalgoorlie through eight pumping stations. Engineer-in-Chief Charles Yelverton O'Connor designed it to deliver about 5 million imperial gallons a day, roughly 23,000 cubic metres. Premier John Forrest introduced the loan bill of 2.5 million pounds on 16 July 1896. O'Connor shot himself at Robb Jetty, South Fremantle, on 10 March 1902, before the scheme was opened.
2013-10-30 - Western Desert Project. The Western Desert Project, published by Aboriginal NRM. Martu people manage Country across the Great Sandy, Little Sandy and Gibson deserts. Water sources are the fixed points around which desert Country is worked.
2014-03-20 - Anvil Media | Productive Solutions to Dryland Salinity. A long form look at farm-scale responses to dryland salinity, including revegetation and drainage. The underlying process is the loss of deep-rooted native plants, which lets water tables rise and bring stored salt to the surface. The video presents production options for affected land.
2014 - Lake Austin. Clearing deep-rooted native vegetation lets rainfall seep past the root zone, raising water tables so that capillary action brings ancient stored salt to the surface. Clearing as little as 25 percent of a catchment can trigger it, and the salt that surfaces was stored in the soil profile long before the ploughs arrived.
2014 - E37 Clackline Lion Park - Goldfields pipeline. Lion Park in w:Clackline, Western Australia. View of the w:Goldfields Water Supply Scheme pipeline.
2014 - Prospector, Kellerberrin, 2014. An East Perth Terminal-bound daylight The Prospector approaches the passenger station at Kellerberrin, Western Australia.
2014 - Serpentine Pipehead Dam (3). Railway water towers existed to fill locomotive tenders and often supplied the town as a side effect. Tanks, towers and pipehead dams move water across a state where most of the population lives a long way from most of the rain.
2014-08-11 - Noongar Stories at Forrestdale Lake
2015-01-08 - Noongar of Beeliar - Swan River. The Noongar of Beeliar and Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River. The wetlands of the Perth coastal plain were a chain of freshwater sources linking Noongar Country across the seasons. Most were drained or filled during the growth of the city.
2015 - Wave Rock Dam fence Hyden 2015-09-. A low wall along the top of the granite catches runoff off the rock face and channels it to a reservoir, which is how wheatbelt towns took water from bare granite before reticulation.
2015 - Endless Stations 56 - Lake Argyle and the Ord River Dam. Lake Argyle, near Kununurra, Western Australia 18th of, October 2015:29AM. Lake Argyle and the Ord irrigation scheme flooded a large area of Miriwoong Country in the East Kimberley.
2015 - Endless Stations 59 - And the world went weird. Lake Argyle Road, near Kununurra, Western Australia 18th of, October 2015:41AM. The diversion dam and the main dam are separate works, and the town sits between them.
2015 - Endless Stations 58 - Clipped Grass. Lake Argyle, near Kununurra, Western Australia 18th of, October 2015:40AM. Lake Argyle and the Ord irrigation scheme flooded a large area of Miriwoong Country in the East Kimberley.
2015 - Harveydam. On Harvey Dam Wall. The tower visible on the middle-right. Perth now draws on desalination and groundwater as well, because the surface catchments no longer fill the way they did.
2015 - Endless Stations 63 - As far as I drove all was yellow. Lake Argyle Road, near Kununurra, Western Australia 18th of, October 2015:12PM. The reservoir is among the largest in Australia by volume.
2016 - Freshwater crocodile at Lake Argyle, Western Australia. Taken from a kayak on Lake Arglye. Kununurra was built to serve the irrigation scheme and did not exist before it.
2016-06-22 - Birriliburu Rangers back on country in West Australian desert. Birriliburu rangers return to Country in the Western Australian desert, published by Bush Heritage Australia. The Birriliburu Indigenous Protected Area covers Martu Country including Katjarra / Carnarvon Range. Karnatukul / Serpent's Glen, within that estate, was redated in 2018 to approximately 47,830 cal BP at the native title holders' request.
2016-07-31 - FREMANTLE HISTORY - C.Y. O'CONNOR. A cycling tour of the Charles Yelverton O'Connor sites around Fremantle, including the beach where he died on 10 March 1902. O'Connor was born on 11 January 1843 and arrived in Western Australia in April 1891 as Engineer-in-Chief. He was responsible for both Fremantle Harbour and the Goldfields pipeline.
2016-08-31 - Destinations WA: The Golden Pipeline. A Kalgoorlie visitor centre segment on the Golden Pipeline heritage trail, which follows the 530 km route of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. The trail links Mundaring Weir with Kalgoorlie via the eight original pumping stations. It is presented here as a driving route rather than a working plant tour.
2017-01-03 - Aboriginal perspective of The Beeliar Wetlands.. A Noongar account of the Beeliar wetlands south of Perth. The wetlands were the subject of a long campaign against a road project that would have cut through them. Noongar objection was based on the sites rather than only on the vegetation.
2018-04-09 - Derbarl Yerrigan. A musical work titled Derbarl Yerrigan, using the Noongar name for the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River. The river runs through Whadjuk Noongar Country and out past Fremantle to the sea. Its name and its stories long predate the colonial naming.
2019-02-24 - Kununurra Ord River Diversion Dam. The Ord River Diversion Dam at Kununurra, the structure that feeds water into the irrigation channels of the east Kimberley scheme. It holds back Lake Kununurra upstream of the farming area. The dam is the lower of the two main storages on the river.
2019-04-04 - 2019 CY O'Connor Lecture: Lessons from the ‘pipe track scandal’. The National Trust's annual C.Y. O'Connor lecture, here on the press campaign against the pipeline that became known as the pipe track scandal. A Sunday Times article of 9 February 1902 by editor Thomas Walker accused O'Connor of gross blundering or something worse. A later government inquiry found no basis for the corruption accusations against him.
2019 - North Dandalup Dam, November 2019. North Dandalup Dam, Western Australia. Looking down at the recreational area below the dam wall. Tanks, towers and pipehead dams move water across a state where most of the population lives a long way from most of the rain.
2019-08-11 - 2019-08-11 Fremantle Ports building, CY O'Connor photo v1. O'Connor, in a wooden frame in the Fremantle Ports building (level 8). He was born on 11 January 1843 in County Meath and emigrated to New Zealand at twenty-one.
2019-10-08 - New pipeline helping drought ravaged town | Nine News Australia. Nine News on a new pipeline built to supply a Western Australian town short of water during drought. Inland towns without reliable surface storage depend on piped or carted supply in dry years. The report follows the construction and the community it serves.
2019-12-28 - Mundaring Weir/Dam 2019 , The Dam,Dam tour !. A walking tour of the Mundaring Weir dam wall and its outlet works. The weir impounds the water that feeds the eight pumping stations of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. It sits in the Darling Range east of Perth on Whadjuk Noongar Country.
2020-03-05 - Hunting for goannas in the Western Desert of WA - This Place. Hunting for goannas in the Western Desert, from ABC Indigenous. Martu hunting practice includes burning that shapes the vegetation mosaic across desert Country. The knowledge involved is the same body of knowledge that locates water.
2020-05-25 - Wetlands: Ket Katitjin. Ket Katitjin, on wetlands, from Kings Park and Botanic Garden in Perth. Katitjin is a Noongar word for knowledge or understanding. The wetlands of the Swan coastal plain were central to Noongar seasonal movement before the city drained most of them.
2020 - Pimelia location on Mundaring Weir Road. C.Y. O'Connor shot himself at Robb Jetty on 10 March 1902, and John Forrest commissioned the completed scheme the following year.
2020 - Wave Rock Dam, Hyden, October 2020. Wave Rock Dam, Hyden, Western Australia. A low wall along the top of the granite catches runoff off the rock face and channels it to a reservoir, which is how wheatbelt towns took water from bare granite before reticulation.
2020 - Wastewater pipeline duplication in Rockingham at Bayview Reserve, Ausgust 2020. The project is part of the installation of a 3.8km section of a below ground treated wastewater pipeline and a transition tower at Point Peron Wastewater Treatment Plant. The scheme carries about 5 million imperial gallons a day, roughly 23,000 cubic metres, from Mundaring to Kalgoorlie.
2020 - C. Y. O'Connor Statue and SS Wyola, March 2020. The C O'Connor Statue and the remnants of the wreck of the SS Wyola, Western Australia. A Sunday Times article of 9 February 1902 by editor Thomas Walker accused him of 'gross blundering or something worse' and of robbing the taxpayer of millions.
2020 - Water Level Measure on Mundaring Weir Wall. The weir and its intake works. A Water Metre on Mundaring Weir Wall.
2020 - Harvey Dam reservoir, December 2020. A scarp dam holding water from a jarrah forest catchment. The Harvey Dam reservoir, Western Australia.
2020 - Harvey Dam, December 2020. A scarp dam holding water from a jarrah forest catchment. The dam wall at Harvey Dam, Western Australia.
2020 - Upper portion of No 1 Chimney tower with ladder to the left. 5 million imperial gallons a day, roughly 23,000 cubic metres.
2020-07-15 - See Perth On Wheels Video- On Mundaring Weir,. A ride around Mundaring Weir, the reservoir that is the head of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. Water is drawn here and pumped 530 km east to Kalgoorlie. The weir was built specifically to feed the pipeline rather than to supply Perth.
2020-09-05 - Voices of the Fitzroy River: Natalie Davey. Natalie Davey speaks for Guardian Australia in Voices of the Fitzroy River. Martuwarra / Fitzroy River flows through the Kimberley to King Sound and is the subject of a continuing argument over irrigation allocation. The people speaking are those whose Country the river runs through.
2020-09-05 - Fitzroy river traditional owner Helen Malo: 'Will we see another Murray-Darling?'. Martuwarra / Fitzroy River traditional owner Helen Malo asks whether the river will go the way of the Murray-Darling. The comparison is to a system where over-allocation produced fish kills and dry reaches. The argument over Kimberley water allocation was unresolved when this was recorded.
2020-11-16 - DERBARL YERRIGAN by Peter Hind at City of Kalamunda's NAIDOC Week 2020. Peter Hind performs a piece titled Derbarl Yerrigan, the Noongar name for the river the colonists called the Swan, at a City of Kalamunda NAIDOC Week event. The Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River is central to Whadjuk Noongar law and story. The performance was recorded in 2020.
2021 - Lake C Y O'Connor and Mundaring Weir during rain storm. Mundaring Weir is the head of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, which lifts water 530 kilometres to Kalgoorlie through eight pumping stations.
2021 - Mundaring Weir Hall. The scheme delivers about 5 million imperial gallons a day, roughly 23,000 cubic metres. Premier John Forrest introduced the bill authorising a 2.5 million pound loan for the scheme on 16 July 1896.
2021 - Mundaring weir road intersection. Premier John Forrest introduced the bill authorising a 2.5 million pound loan for the scheme on 16 July 1896. C.Y. O'Connor shot himself at Robb Jetty on 10 March 1902, and John Forrest commissioned the completed scheme the following year.
2021 - Pimelia sign on mundaring weir road. Before the pipeline reached the goldfields in 1903, Kalgoorlie ran on condensed salt water and carted water, and typhoid moved through the camps.
2021 - Mundaring weir road sign to former location on railway line. The 1968 Meckering earthquake damaged this pipeline, which links the water scheme to the fault scarp in one event. Mundaring Weir is the head of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, which lifts water 530 kilometres to Kalgoorlie through eight pumping stations.
2021 - Kalgoorlie water pipes on Mount Charlotte. Looking downhill at the pipes coming up to the reservoir at the top of Mount Charlotte. The scheme opened in 1903, a year after the engineer who designed it shot himself.
2021 - Footbridge over the Serpentine River near Serpentine Falls, May 2021. The footbridge over the Serpentine River near Serpentine Falls, Serpentine National Park, Western Australia, with the two water pipelines coming from the Serpentine Pipehead Dam either side of it.
2021 - Harvey Dam, April 2021. A scarp dam holding water from a jarrah forest catchment. The Harvey Dam at Harvey, Western Australia.
2021 - Gibbs Pool, Harvey Dam, April 2021. The dam and its impounded water. Gibbs Pool, located below Harvey Dam, Western Australia.
2021 - Gibbs Pool Amphitheatre, April 2021. The Gibbs Pool Amphitheatre, located Harvey Dambelow Harvey Dam, Western Australia. Canning Dam was built through the 1930 s and remains one of the city's principal storages.
2021-07-09 - The heal country consultation for Perth Stadium | Heal Country | NAIDOC Week | ABC Australia. ABC coverage of the consultation with Whadjuk Noongar people over the stadium site on the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River, broadcast for NAIDOC Week under the Heal Country theme. The site sits on a bend of the river with long-standing cultural significance. The report covers how that significance was addressed in the design.
2021-07-11 - Voices of Martuwarra - Taryn Carrington. Taryn Carrington speaks in Voices of Martuwarra, published by the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council. The council was formed by the peoples whose Country the river crosses to speak for the river itself. Proposals to draw water from Martuwarra / Fitzroy River for irrigation have been contested throughout.
2021-08-24 - JILA - Painted waters of the Great Sandy Desert. Jila, the painted waters of the Great Sandy Desert. Jila are living waters, permanent sources in desert Country that are held and maintained through knowledge passed between generations. Desert water sources are the reason occupation of this Country was possible at all.
2021-12-02 - FREMANTLE PORT. Present-day footage of Fremantle Port, built inside the mouth of the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River. The inner harbour was completed in 1903 after construction that began in 1892. It replaced anchorages that had required ships to lighter cargo ashore.
2022 - Aerial view of Ord River following take off from East Kimberley Regional Airport, Kununurra, WA, 2022. Aerial view of Ord River following take off from East Kimberley Regional Airport, Kununurra, WA, in 2022. The Durack family overlanded cattle to the Ord in 1883, one of the great pastoral drives and the beginning of European occupation here.
2022-07-21 - Goldfields Water Supply Scheme - Last Days of Steam. Archival material on the last days of steam pumping on the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, before the stations converted to electric drive. Steam plant had driven the eight pumping stations since the scheme opened. The changeover ended the coal and boiler operation that the pipeline was originally designed around.
2022-07-21 - Goldfields Water Supply Scheme - Automation. A technical look at the automation of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, which replaced manual operation of the pumping stations. The original scheme used eight stations to push water 530 km inland. Automation changed the staffing and control of a system built in the first years of the twentieth century.
2023 - Watertower at Cervantes, Western Australia, September 2023. The watertower at Cervantes, Western Australia, seen from Lake Thetis. Corrugated tanks caught roof runoff, which in much of the wheatbelt was the only fresh water a house had.
2023 - AUS Perth, Fremantle, Harbour 012. In der City of Fremantle, Perth, Western Australia, Australien. He shot himself at Robb Jetty on 10 March 1902. A government inquiry afterwards found no basis for the accusations against him.
2023 - Spillway at South Dandalup Dam, January 2023. The Dandalup storage, one of the newer scarp dams. The Spillway at South Dandalup Dam, Western Australia.
2023 - South Dandalup Dam, January 2023. The Dandalup storage, one of the newer scarp dams. The South Dandalup Dam, Western Australia.
2023 - North Dandalup Pipehead Dam picnic area and lake, January 2023. Reticulated supply reached many country towns only in the second half of the twentieth century. Corrugated tanks caught roof runoff, which in much of the wheatbelt was the only fresh water a house had.
2023-08-30 - Lake Argyle and the Ord Irrigation Scheme bringing life to Western Australia's Kimberley region. A tour of Lake Argyle and the Ord irrigation area in the east Kimberley. Lake Argyle is the upper storage of the scheme, with the Diversion Dam at Kununurra feeding the irrigated land. The area is Miriwoong Country.
2023-10-05 - Salty plants are thriving in a farming wasteland and gourmet chefs love them | ABC News. ABC News on samphire and other salt-tolerant plants being grown on salt-affected farmland and sold to restaurants. The land became unusable for conventional crops after water tables rose and carried stored salt to the surface. The report follows growers turning that ground to a different product.
2023-12-27 - "Scheme Of Madness" - A True Heritage Wonder ⭐-The Mundaring Weir. A visit to Mundaring Weir, the starting point of the Goldfields pipeline. Critics at the time called the plan a scheme of madness because of the distance and the uphill pumping involved. The completed system carried about 5 million imperial gallons a day to Kalgoorlie.
2024-05-23 - The energy intensive reality powering Perth's future drinking water supply | ABC News. ABC News on the energy demand of the desalination plants that supply a large share of Perth's drinking water. Desalination replaced rainfall-dependent dams as the city's main new source. The report covers the power required to run the process.
2024 - Leeman Salt Lake. Southern sky over the salt lake This was an eventful trip to one of the salt lakes in Leeman (approx. 2 and a half hours north of Perth). The night was beautiful despite the occasional high clouds drifting past. Clearing deep-rooted native vegetation lets rainfall seep past the root zone, raising water tables so that capillary action brings ancient stored salt to the surface.
2024 - Serpentine Dam View. Serpentine Dam, WA, from near Bistro by the Dam. The Darling Scarp dams supply Perth from jarrah forest catchments east of the city.
2024 - Serpentine Dam Intake Tower. Canning Dam was built through the 1930 s and remains one of the city's principal storages. Rainfall across the southwest has declined by as much as 20 percent since the 1970 s, which is the pressure these catchments are under.
2024 - Serpentine Dam Spillway. Rainfall across the southwest has declined by as much as 20 percent since the 1970 s, which is the pressure these catchments are under.
2024 - , September 2024Mundaring Weir Pumping Station Number One. Water rises about 390 metres between the weir and the goldfields, which is why the pumping stations exist at all. The scheme delivers about 5 million imperial gallons a day, roughly 23,000 cubic metres.
2024 - C. Y. O'Connor Memorial and Fremantle Port Authority Building, July 2024. The heritage listed C O'Connor Memorial and Fremantle Port Authority Building, Western Australia. He was born on 11 January 1843 in County Meath and emigrated to New Zealand at twenty-one.
2024 - Water pipeline over the Birrega Main Drain south of Mundijong Road, December 2024. Eight pumping stations lift the water across 530 kilometres of Country with no reliable surface water of its own. The pipeline was still the goldfields' water supply when the Meckering earthquake damaged it in 1968.
2025-03-30 - The sole resident of Fremantle Harbour. A look at Fremantle Harbour and its long working history. O'Connor proposed cutting the port inside the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River entrance, against expert opinion that called the plan impracticable. Construction began in 1892 and the first ocean-going steamer, the Sultan, berthed on 4 May 1897.
2025 - Wave Rock Dam, Hyden, January 2025. A low wall along the top of the granite catches runoff off the rock face and channels it to a reservoir, which is how wheatbelt towns took water from bare granite before reticulation.
2025 - Mundaring Weir -, April 2025. Mundaring Weir viewed from the Weir View Lookout on the O’Connor Trail. Premier John Forrest introduced the bill authorising a 2.5 million pound loan for the scheme on 16 July 1896.
2025-08-16 - A cotton gin in the Kimberley's Ord Irrigation Scheme promises great things | Landline | ABC News. ABC Landline on a cotton gin built in the east Kimberley to process crops grown under the Ord Irrigation Scheme. Cotton is one of a long series of crops trialled on Ord land since the scheme began. The report follows the growers and the processing plant.
2026-01-16 - LAKE ARGYLE & THE BUNGLE BUNGLES | Into the Kimberley, WA Road Trip. A Kimberley road trip taking in Lake Argyle and Purnululu / Bungle Bungle Range. Lake Argyle is the main water storage of the Ord River irrigation scheme. Purnululu is a World Heritage listed range on Gija and Jaru Country.
2026-05-19 - Goldfields Water Supply. An engineering account of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, which lifts water 530 km inland from Mundaring Weir to Kalgoorlie across eight pumping stations. The design was unusual for its time in pumping uphill over that distance rather than relying on gravity. It remains in service supplying the eastern Goldfields.
2026-05-24 - Destination WA - Canning Dam. A Destination WA segment on Canning Dam in the Darling Range, one of Perth's hills storages. The dam and its catchment sit on Whadjuk Noongar Country south east of the city. Hills dams like this supplied most of Perth's water before desalination and groundwater took a larger share.
2026 - Goldfields Water Supply Scheme pipeline north of Norseman, July 2026. The pipeline was still the goldfields' water supply when the Meckering earthquake damaged it in 1968. The scheme carries about 5 million imperial gallons a day, roughly 23,000 cubic metres, from Mundaring to Kalgoorlie.
2026-06-21 - WA's greatest engineering achievement - The Golden Pipeline. A long walk-through of the Golden Pipeline route from Mundaring Weir toward Kalgoorlie, following the surviving pump stations and steel main. The scheme was designed to deliver about 23,000 cubic metres a day to the Goldfields. Much of the original alignment is now a heritage trail.